I attended a church camp when I was 11 years of age together with my family. It was a beautiful place to be, an expansive forest, grass fields, wooden buildings that looked old style, and there was also a long pond in between the camp and the road. We regularly saw some wild animals visiting the grounds, from monkeys, squirrels, to antelopes. This place was just ideal to forget all worries you could be having and also the everyday life routine. Being 11 years old, to me this was a place of meeting up with friends, falling in love with a girl, or making new memories. This summer camp was however different from others, and it was more spiritual for me. This spirituality was not anything to do with the religious message, but because of my awakening that year at the camp.
Since a young age, my parents made sure that I attended these summer camps every year. This year was however very different compared to others. I never played a lot as usual, and I kept looking for answers to profound religious and life questions. My soul and mind seemed ready for a transformation. My vision changed suddenly during a walk to the cafeteria in the camp. Grass shone, and the texture was lucid on the barks of trees, and everything looked as if it was new to me. I felt like a rebirth because it was like seeing all these for the first time. I felt like a baptism, you know, not that of water in the church, but an inward transformation. It was effortless and spontaneous. It seemed like there was some darkness in my consciousness and suddenly a light was switched on, and everything became new. I also felt a great sense of peace, a mental silence I had never experienced, and I felt great joy.
Everything around me changed from that moment onwards. I was however too young to comprehend what was going on; I thought I had become some prophet. A lot of people have had similar experiences, but I felt that it only happened to me and I was somehow better than others. This feeling was hard to grasp at my tender age then. I came to know later that I was not special at all, and that there are a lot of people like me.
This experience taught me that the spiritual rebirth or baptism is an occurrence that is spontaneous and it is not only performed through the priest. I also got to know that lack of knowledge could lead to spiritual ego, where a person sees himself or herself as unique or more critical because of the spiritual experiences. These lessons, of spiritual ego and true baptism, have helped me to gain a lot in life, for example staying humble even when I achieve something, inner peace, and having more creativity. I have had different times in my life, but this one tops the list of all to me because it was my turning point.
